The Little Things
by saragillie
Summary: A series of one shots. People notice little differences after Jupiter's return to Earth at the end of the movie. Now Complete
1. Feathers

**AN: This one is super fluffy. Hope you don't choke on the sweetness. I am a bit disappointed that not very many people have written reviews. Do you like it? Hate it? Does it have spelling errors I overlooked? Please, tell me what you think. I even take suggestions.**

Jupiter hummed quietly as she snuck in the front door of the house, hoping her later-than-planned return would elicit no comments. She replayed their date in her mind, reliving each word, each look, each kiss and each glorious moment of flight. She could still taste his kisses, feel the slightly rough texture of his calloused hands, and smell his musky scent.

She felt giddy. All first dates should be this amazing. Caine's wings were incredible. Flying was so much fun. Although technically she hadn't been flying, she'd decided that it was close enough and so much nicer to say than gravity surfing. Although "gravity surfing" did have a cachet of its own.

But the thing that made her the happiest of all? Caine had stopped waffling and decided he wanted the relationship she was offering despite the differences between them.

She floated up the stairs, thinking dreamily about kissing him again. "In the arms of my love, I'm flying, over mountain and meadow and glen, and I like it so well that for all I can tell I may never come down again," she sang under her breath.

"Jupe!" A sharp whisper pulled her back down to earth.

"Mikka? What are you still doing up?"

"Waiting for you. I want to hear all about your date." Her eyes shone in anticipation. "I'm pretty sure everybody else is asleep, but I just couldn't wait until tomorrow."

Jupiter sighed happily. "It was so amazing. I felt like Cinderella at the ball."

Mikka grabbed her, pulled her into her room and closed the door behind them. "Cinderella?"

"Yeah," Jupiter replied, a soft warm smile curving her lips. "You know, from that musical you made me watch a few weeks ago?" She hummed a few bars of the song she'd been singing as flopped onto the bed.

"Oh right. Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella. You really feel like that?" Mikka sighed in envy. "If it really does happen in real life, I hope it happens to me someday. So, what did you do?"

"Well, there was an incredible view of the skyline and afterward we had a picnic and watched the sunset."

"So he took you to the John Hancock building or the Sears Tower?"

Jupiter, absorbed in her reminiscence, paid only the scantest of attention. "No, we went flying."

"He has a plane?" Mikka demanded in excitement. "Maybe he would take me up sometime?"

That brought Jupiter's attention abruptly back to the present. Mikka was crazy about all things related to flying. "Um, he doesn't own the plane. He said he was borrowing it from a friend."

"So maybe if things keep going well between you and..." Mikka looked thunderstruck. "I can't believe I forgot to ask his name!"

"His name is Caine." Simply saying his name sent Jupiter back to her happy place.

"So, tell me more about him," she demanded eagerly.

Jupiter smiled dreamily. "He's gorgeous. A little over six feet tall. Dark blond hair, beard, well-built. His feathers are so soft."

"Wait, what? Feathers?" Mikka asked in confusion.

Jupiter yawned hugely. "Sorry, Mikka, but I'm beat. It was a long day before my date started. I must have been drifting off." She forced herself off the bed. "I need to get at least a few hours of sleep before work tomorrow. See you at breakfast."

Moments after closing Mikka's door quietly behind her, she dropped into her own bed and fell asleep fully clothed.


	2. Gown

**AN: Thanks for the reviews of the last chapter (although I use the term very loosely). Sorry that it took so long to post this. I had (have) one other pretty ready and I was planning on posting that. But then I had a great idea for a sequel to this, one that has a little more plot. Once I had the idea for that (I'll probably call it "The Little Things Add Up"), the chapter I had prepped next for this series made more sense a little later in the series. So I had to actually sit down and write (*gasp*) the stories for the other ideas I had for the series. I know it's short, but I hope you enjoy it. Next one shouldn't take quite as long.**

"Jupiter, have you seen my favorite shirt?" Aunt Nino's voice floated from the closet. "I can't find it."

Jupiter lounged on her bed, typing a text message on her iPhone. "No. But our closet is a disaster. Maybe it fell back behind one of the suitcases or something?"

She had just switched back to her game when she heard the rustling of fabric.

"Jupiter, what is this?" Nino was holding out the violet dress she'd woken up wearing on Kalique's planet.

She had totally forgotten that she had stuffed the dress into the back of the closet. She had to think of an answer and quick. "I… um… it was a gift from Katherine. You know, from the last time she purged her closet."

Nino's eyes narrowed as she looked at Jupiter. "You're a terrible liar. And if you're going to lie, at least come up with something believable. Katherine would never wear this. It's the wrong color for her, but perfect on you."

"Does it matter?" Jupiter asked.

"The dress doesn't really matter. But lying to me? That does." Nino looked sad.

Jupiter sighed. "I'm sorry, Nino. I meant to get rid of it, but something came up and I forgot it was back there."

That wasn't quite as much of a lie as the first. She had meant to move it out of the house.

Aunt Nino was curious. "What was it for anyway? You haven't been to any formal parties since your prom."

Deciding against another lie, Jupiter replied, "I'd rather not say."

Nino looked at her thoughtfully and then turned back to look for her shirt in the closet.

Jupiter let out a quiet breath of relief. She really hated this having two lives thing and needing to hide it. She wasn't very good at it. She needed to figure out exactly what she was going to do about this space queen thing. She didn't want to clean toilets for the rest of her life and there was a whole universe out there waiting to be explored.


	3. Telescope

**AN: Finally after weeks of debating, I decided what to do with this. Since it's a more serious in tone than the others, I wasn't sure if I should post it. But it dovetails nicely with the sequel which will be coming. Hopefully, it will be soon, since I finally made progress on the Gravity Boots chapter. Enjoy.**

Vladie finally found Jupiter on the roof, sitting next to her telescope.

"Nice to see you using that. You wanted it really badly, but you've hardly been up here since we gave it to you."

"I've been busy," Jupiter replied defensively. "We added a couple of new houses in the past month or two."

"And you have a 'boyfriend' now." Vladie made air quotes around "boyfriend" to show that he didn't really believe said boyfriend actually existed, a topic he brought up at least three times a week.

"Look, Vladie, did you come out here for a reason? Because if you're going to be snarky, you can leave the way you came."

"We're starting the next season of Star Trek Deep Space 9. Come on!"

He stood, expecting her to follow. But she didn't move.

"Jupiter, you coming or what?"

"No, I don't think I am," she replied slowly.

"What is with you lately, Jupe?"

"TV shows are nice and all, but what if space, the 'final frontier,' isn't like it's portrayed on TV? What if it's worse? I mean, maybe there's nothing like the federation, and we're just all fighting out there like we do on earth."

Vladie started at her in shock. "Where's this coming from?"

"I was looking at Jupiter… and wondering. Maybe space is just a bigger place for us to argue and fight in, a place where the rich continue to take advantage of the poor and the ignorant. Maybe people invent things that are worse than slavery."

"I don't what's going on Jupiter, but something is really screwing with your head. Come down and watch with us. It'll distract you from your morbid thoughts."

"No thanks. I think I'll look at the stars some more."

As he exited, she put her eye back to the eyepiece and wondered how it was that Jupiter still looked exactly the same. Somehow what she experienced there, the destruction of the refinery should have changed it, the way it had changed her. She shied away from the heavy weight of the memories, avoiding the vice grip they exerted on her emotions.

If she didn't do something, in a few years, she'd be facing the awful choice of regenerating to save her planet or dying and the possibility of the earth being harvested. Who would it go to anyway? She needed a will or something.


	4. Bodyguard

**AN: After a hiatus of 5 years, I'm back to writing and into a new fandom. At the moment, I don't have someone to beta for me, so I'll be sticking to less complex stories. I've got some** **multi chapter stuff in the works, but I know that I write better with a beta, so I'm holding off on those until I get them finished and beta-ed. Hope you enjoy this small offering.**

Vladie sidled up to Jupiter. "Hey Jupe, you aren't in trouble with immigration or something are you?" he asked in a low tone.

She looked confused. "No. Why would you ask something like that?"

"Well, lately I've noticed that whenever you're home there's a guy in black across the street watching the house. And when you're not here, he's gone. So, I figure you must be in some kind of trouble."

Immigration was not among the interpretations she imagined might arise as explanations for having a royal guard. What a fight it had been to keep the group small. Everyone in space seemed to expect her to have a whole detachment of soldiers in black capes and funny helmets following her around. She would have preferred no guards at all, but that suggestion had been squashed faster than an ant at a picnic.

Jupiter laughed out loud. "No. They're not from immigration services."

"You _know_ about them?"

"Of course I do."

He couldn't contain his curiosity. "So who are they?"

"My bodyguard," she replied candidly.

Now it was his turn to laugh. "Why would you," he sniggered, "need a bodyguard?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you," she replied with a wink.

"No, seriously, Jupe. Why _do_ you have a bodyguard?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Wait, you aren't like a super secret spy or something, are you?" he asked intrigued.

"Nope. And I'm not going to answer you."

"But, you always tell me everything," he protested.

"No," Jupiter replied gently. "I used to tell you everything. Well, maybe not everything, but almost everything."

"This has to do with those few days that you disappeared, doesn't it?" he demanded. "You were never closemouthed before then. And since you came back, you've been kind of… I don't know… weird sometimes."

She needed to get him off this subject fast. "New boyfriend?" she tossed out.

"Nah, it can't be that," he said. "A new boyfriend explains the chirpy 'Good mornings' and that stupid, silly grin you've had lately, but not a bodyguard. Hey, now that you mention it, when do we get to meet this 'supposed' boyfriend?"

Jupiter sighed in relief. She could handle razzing about a boyfriend, but she needed to get better at deflecting a few other topics and fast. She wondered what Vladie would think if he knew that a member of her security detail was also her boyfriend and that he'd already seen him.

She imagined his response to the truth. He'd probably faint or something.

Humorous familial reactions aside, 'space queen' sounded cool, but it didn't really mean much yet. The earth was hers, but what should she do with it? What if she needed to protect it?

She sighed again. With her schedule she was never going to have the time she needed to sort things out. She really needed some time away to process everything. Maybe she should take a vacation.


	5. Tattoo

**AN: This took a few days longer to post than I'd planned, but I used the extra time tighten up the writing.**

"Jupe, it's sweltering out here. Your face is red. You've got to take that shirt off." Vladie insisted.

"I don't have my watch," she muttered, knowing it was useless to protest.

He was right; she had to ditch the long-sleeved shirt. She was so hot that her head was starting to swim. But without the shirt or the watch, he'd notice it for sure.

Thinking about the watch made her smile. A gift from Caine, it was custom made to cover the shimmery blue image on her right wrist.

He gave her a look. "I know you're attached to that watch. I just don't understood why you like it so much. It's chunky and not at all your usual style." His tone turned playful. "Now, Ms. Jones, take that shirt off before I have to wrestle you for it!"

She turned slightly as she pulled the shirt off, shielding her arm from his view. She threw the shirt at him with her left arm. "Alright, I surrender the shirt!"

"Good. Now sit over there in the shade while I get you a bottle of water. We can finish our walk when you've cooled off. The electronics store isn't going anywhere." He headed toward a convenience store across the street.

The shade felt good as she stepped under the sheltering branches of the tree and sat down on the park bench. The woozy feeling in her head began to recede.

She admired the flowers blooming in the beds around a small lawn. At the sound of children's laughter, she looked to the right and saw several kids playing tag near a play structure a few hundred yards away.

Discretely, she scanned her surroundings looking for the security detail that accompanied her everywhere. They were very good at blending in, but the group was small, so she was almost always able to find them. Caine leaned casually against a bus stop half a block up. Her pulse quickened, like it always did when she first laid eyes on him after a separation. Some days, she still had a hard time believing he was hers and she was his. When she really thought about it, the magnitude of it all threatened to overwhelm her.

Vladie plopped down to her left. She gave Caine a wink before taking the bottle Vladie held out to her. Twisting off the cap, she took a big gulp of cold water.

"Thanks, Vladie. I needed that."

"Sure, no prob, Jupe."

She lifted the bottle and took another swig.

The moment she heard his indrawn breath, she knew he'd seen it.

"Is that a tattoo?"

Since denial was useless, she extended her arm to let him look at it. He gently turned her arm to get a better look.

"I've never seen a tattoo that color before. It glows. What does it mean?"

She took another swig from her water bottle to buy herself a moment to think. She'd known this day would come eventually, but she never could figure out what she should say. The fact that she had it was a mark of her entitlement; the symbol itself was a complicated rendering of her DNA, her planet of origin, and the Abrasax family crest.

"I… um…" she stammered. "It means I'm entitled."

She wasn't going to tell Vladie the whole story, but she didn't want to lie either. She would use his confusion to avoid giving a substantive answer.

"Entitled? Entitled to what? Key to the city? Free parking? Jupe, that's not an answer."

"Fine, then. It represents me."

He looked at it again. "It does? I don't see how. There's no toilet brush!" he joked.

"Very funny, Vladie. I'm feeling better now. Let's get going."

As they stood and continued toward the electronics store, she let out a quiet sigh of relief that he hadn't pursued it further.

"Your mom is so going to freak when she finds out about that tattoo." Whoops, she'd let her guard down too fast. But this she could handle.

"Well, she's not going to find out from you, unless you want me to tell the whole of the paint incident." Jupiter threatened, referencing an escapade from their youth.

"You wouldn't! Jupe, you promised!" He protested in outrage.

"Then keep your mouth shut."

She slipped into her shirt just before they entered the air-conditioned electronics store. She had to be more careful. Otherwise, she'd be in for it with her family.


	6. Bees

**AN: I know this is short, but it was fun to write. I have another couple in the works, but I've running out of ideas. If you have suggestions for the series, I'd love to hear them.**

Jupiter sat between Nino and Moltka munching on an ear of roasted corn and waiting for a hamburger to come off the grill. Although the family often ate traditional Russian dishes, cousin Vassily loved the American tradition of barbeque.

So this summer evening, he was manning the grill and the family was eating on the back deck. A gentle breeze and the shade of a large tree had reduced the scorching heat of the day to an almost pleasant temperature. It was much better than sweltering inside.

Mikka swatted at a bug. "Go away. This is my food." Asserting her possession of the grilled chicken, she took a big bite.

"Next batch is done," Vassily called, putting the last burger on a serving plate. Moments after he deposited the plate in the middle of the table, Jupiter and half of her relatives reached for buns at the same time.

For a few minutes, their conversation consisted of things like "pass the ketchup" and "we need the lettuce at this end of the table." Then conversation ebbed and flowed while people ate and shooed off bugs.

"Where are all these bees coming from?" demanded Nino suddenly.

Pulling her attention from the story Vladie was telling, Jupiter looked around. There were quite a few bees hanging around. What a nuisance.

She usually had a few escorting her whenever she was outside, but never enough that anybody had noticed. They seemed to instinctively know they weren't welcome inside.

Jupiter addressed the bees. "I know you're just curious, but my family is afraid that you're going to sting them. Please leave us alone."

As one the bees turned and flew over the back fence, as if they'd understood her words.

Silence reigned at the table as her family stared first at the retreating bees and then at Jupiter. "How'd you do that?" Moltka asked, his voice tinged with awe.

"Bee whisperer?" she offered with a weak smile.

A moment later, conversation started up again. Vladie and Mikka debated whether or not insects could be "whispered" like mammals. But Jupiter noticed Vassily and her mother shooting her measured glances when they thought she wasn't paying attention.


	7. Boyfriend

**AN: Inspiration hit the other day, just when I was stuck on gravity boots. I'm still stuck on that one, but at least there's something for you to enjoy in the meantime.**

Nino cornered Jupiter three months after her first date with Caine. "So, how did things go last night? You came in pretty late."

The words were innocent enough, but there was something in her tone. This was going to be an interrogation rather than a conversation Jupiter suspected.

She shrugged. "We had fun." She couldn't exactly say that they'd been flying over the city for the last hour of their date while enjoying the lights.

"What did you do?" Nino queried.

"Well, we ate at Red Robin and then we went to a firing range. He's teaching me to shoot."

Nino's eyes narrowed. "He's not a member of the NRA or something is he?"

Jupiter shrugged again, not about to say that he was a soldier. That would just take the interrogation places she really didn't want to go.

"Have you met his family? How many siblings does he have? Where's he from?"

Jupiter gave the closest answer to the truth that she could she could. No pack and no parents. "He's an only child. He moved around a lot as a kid. Parents died when he was little."

"What's his sign?"

"Nino, not everyone cares about astrology like you do. I didn't ask."

"You don't know when his birthday is?" Nino demanded.

"No, I didn't ask about that either."

"Well then, what have you been doing?"

"I'm getting to be a pretty good shot. We've been making the rounds of the city's ethnic restaurants, attended to a few concerts." She waved a hand vaguely. "You know, other things."

The moment the words "other things" popped out of her mouth she knew she'd made a tactical error. She'd been thinking about flying, gravity surfing and time spent at Stinger's farm, the studying she'd been doing in preparation for going off world.

But Nino's mind went elsewhere. "I know you young people don't hold to the same mores as we older folks do, but you have been careful, used protection?"

A blush stained Jupiter's cheeks. "That wasn't what I was talking about, Nino. And don't you think it's a few years too late to be having _that_ discussion? For the record, so far we've stuck to kissing."

"Jupiter, where are you?" her mother called. "Have you seen Nino? If we don't leave in the next two minutes we will be late for cleaning the Jacobsen's house."

"We're coming," Nino called. "Bring him over for dinner soon," she ordered Jupiter before she sailed out of the room.

Jupiter exhaled slowly. Nino could be intense sometimes, and once she got an idea into her head she wouldn't let it go. She'd need to avoid her aunt for the foreseeable future if she didn't want to be harassed about bringing Caine to dinner.


	8. Differential Equations

**AN: Thanks for the interest and to the two people who reviewed! Here's another little thing for you to enjoy!**

Caine sat in an old easy chair in Jupiter's basement, his long legs stretched in front of him and crossed at the ankles. Springs poked his wings uncomfortably in several places, so he stretched them wide and clasped his hands behind his head. She'd sneaked him into the house to "hang out." Really, she used the strangest colloquialisms sometimes, but he was getting used to it.

"You look relaxed," Jupiter commented with a frown, looking up from the textbook on the desk in front of her.

"The chair is rather uncomfortable, Your Majesty." He deliberately added the "Your Majesty," hoping that her usual happy smile would wipe away the frown.

"That old thing? It's been around forever. Nobody sits in it anymore." A smile did not accompany the reply.

"Your Majesty usually smiles when I say 'Your Majesty.'"

Jupiter wrinkled her nose and answered the implied question. "I can't figure out this problem."

He ambled over to the desk. "Why are you doing remedial math?"

"Calculus is not remedial math!" she replied hotly. "It's been a while since I studied it, and I'm having a hard time getting back into the groove."

He gestured to her pencil. "May I?"

When she handed it over, he erased one variable and replaced it with another. "Your error was there."

She gave him an assessing look. "I didn't know you knew math."

He shrugged. "There's still a lot Your Majesty doesn't know about me yet, and lot I don't know about you. Skyjackers have to have a basic knowledge of how the technology we use works, in addition to being able to use it and do maintenance and basic repairs. I wasn't half bad at astronavigation. You didn't say why you were studying calculus."

"The gravity surfing boots are so amazing. I want to know how they work. But differential equations are after calculus and I've forgotten half the calculus I knew, so…"

His sensitive ears picked up a sound. "Someone's coming!"

"Go stand in the alcove underneath the stairs. Nobody will notice you there. And even if they do, your ears and wings won't be noticeable."

He was in the shadowy corner in an instant, and then next she heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs.

"Jupiter, what are you doing?" her mother asked.

"I'm stuck." She showed her mom how far she'd gotten and corrected the steps that came after the one Caine had corrected.

"You haven't opened a textbook since you graduated high school. What is going on?"

"I… um… I felt like I needed a change?" Jupiter cringed at her lame explanation and wished again that she thought faster on her feet.

Her mother gave her a look. "You always did well in math, but you never loved it like you did astronomy. You have been different lately. Something is going on with you. You're a good girl, Jupiter. When are you going to tell me what is going on?"

Jupiter shrugged.

Her mother frowned. In a torrent of Russian, her mother explained what was happening in the problem and where she was going wrong.

"Thanks. Mom. That really helped." She stood and hugged her mother.

Caine watched as her mother moved to the self. "I came down for more cleaning supplies. We need to restock the car." She grabbed several bottles and climbed back up the stairs.

Jupiter smiled at Caine. "You can come out now."

"Now I've learned something about you, Your Majesty. Your mother knows a lot about math. Why is she cleaning toilets?"

"Nobody in the United States really needs to be taught mathematics in Russian. Will you help me the next time I'm stuck?"

"I can do the math, Your Majesty, but I can't explain it. I'm just not good at explanations, and I didn't learn it in English or Russian. Besides, I though we were supposed to be hanging out. I didn't realize that meant watching you do math."

She looked a little sheepish. "It doesn't. I'm sorry. You wanna watch a movie?"

"Let's go out. I want to see another of your favorite places in Chicago."

She smiled broadly. "Alright. I'll get my jacket. Meet you outside in five?" He didn't really need her help sneaking in or out of the house.


	9. Books

"Jupiter, what are these?" her mother asked, holding up a stack of books.

Jupiter sucked in a harsh breath. Her mom had found her stash of extracurricular reading material. She'd had them printed so she could read more discretely.

"Mama, what are you doing looking between my mattresses?" she demanded hotly.

"Changing your sheets. They haven't been changed in weeks." Setting the books down on the bedside table, she asked again, "What about the books? I have never seen such strange titles in my life." She read them out. " _A Children's Illustrated History of the Universe. The Species of the Known Universe. A Basic Introduction to Modern Technology._ This one has a large section on space ships of all things. _Splices: Their Origin and Uses. Intergalactic Economics. Who's Who: A Guide to Space Royalty. Introductory Genetics._ This is the only one that looks normal."

Jupiter stepped around her mom and snatched up the books. Note to self: next time have them printed with fake covers. "I'm just doing some reading."

"Jupiter, I am not stupid. Something is going on. 'Just reading' for you is usually a fashion magazine, not what appear to be textbooks for a non-existent world."

"I happen to love stories about non-existent worlds, Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate to name several, _and_ stories about superheroes."

Aleksa rolled her eyes. "I know. You and your father, both with your head in the stars." She sighed. "Fine. Keep your secrets for now. But don't expect me to rescue you when trouble comes."

Jupiter sighed with relief when her mother walked out of the room. Trouble had already come in spades and she had needed rescue after rescue after rescue. She would always be grateful to Caine for rescuing her and her family.

Now she needed to figure out how to manage both her lives, and for the one, she needed the information in those books. She had to know how the Commonwealth and its economy worked before she could figure out how to change it. Liquidating some people so others could live longer. She shuddered in horror. Somebody had to do something, and she was going to try. These books were just the beginning.

 **AN: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. So, this is setting up for a sequel, "The Little Things Add Up." It started simple and I thought it would be a one shot. Now it's taken on a life of its own and it's turning out to be quite long. I need some help though. I had the idea that it would be great to do one of these one shots on gravity boots and it plays a small part in the sequel, but I can't figure out who should the one that "calls" her on them (notices them, whatever). So, I'm taking suggestions. I'm not sure if I should try and do someone we haven't seen much of in the series, or stick with someone we've had several times. What do you think? I need a push to get the creative juices flowing for it.**


	10. Gravity Boots

**AN: Yes! I am so excited to finally be posting this. Thank you for your patience with my writer's block. I'm planning to post the sequel "The Little Things Add Up" sometime next week.**

"Hey, Jupe. Can I borrow your boots?" Mikka asked.

She looked up. "Which ones?"

Mikka held up a pair of black boots with unusual designs on them. "These ones."

Jupiter panicked. Those were her gravity surfing boots! She thought she'd hidden them away in a box pushed far under her bed. "No. Not those ones. Where did you find them?"

"In a box under your bed."

"What were you doing looking under my bed?" Jupiter asked, trying to keep her tone even.

"Looking for these boots. I really want to borrow them."

"You do?" Jupiter couldn't figure out why. To her eye, they were clunky and biker-ish. Not her or Mikka's usual style at all. But since they could "fly," she wasn't about to quibble with their styling.

"When you were wearing them the other day, I noticed the cool designs on the side. I really like this one." Her cousin pointed.

Jupiter walked over to look. She saw two lines connecting at a point, not unlike a letter 'v.'

"This is neat too." Mikka rotated the boot to show her another spot and the control glove fell out. When it hit the floor, the holographic buttons appeared.

Jupiter dove for the glove and scooped it up before her cousin noticed. In her haste, she didn't pay attention to where she grabbed it and the boots started to glow in Mikka's hands.

She grinned in delight. "They glow too? Hey, they feel lighter."

Jupiter discretely powered them off and Mikka's hands sagged with the added weight. "Um… yeah. The boots are really cool, but I'm gonna have to say 'no' to the borrowing them."

She could just imagine Mikka accidentally tripping, knocking the boots together in just the right (or wrong) way, triggering the manual start, and her sailing off into the sky with no idea of how to control them.

Mikka begged, but Jupiter held firm. "I need them back now. I was planning to wear them today."

When her cousin handed them over, she immediately put them on and tucked the control glove into her pocket.

A few days later, Jupiter waltzed through the door to her house in the mid afternoon. Their last client of the day had canceled, and she had several hours of free time. She intended to spend every minute of it with Caine.

Humming happily, she tripped lightly up the steps to her room. She stuffed a change of clothes into a duffle bag and dug under the bed for the box containing her gravity boots. The minute she touched the box, she knew something was wrong. It was too light.

Her fears were confirmed a moment later when all she found in the box was the control glove. She frantically searched the room and came up empty.

She took several deep breaths to calm herself down, stuffed the glove in her pocket and went looking for her family.

"Hey, Moltka. Have you seen my black boots? I can't find them anywhere." Her effort to sound casual came out strained even to her own ears, but he didn't seem to notice.

"I think Mikka wore them to school today," he said. "She's not back yet. She's hanging out with friends this afternoon and Mom's supposed to pick her up later."

"Thanks, Moltka. You're a lifesaver." She smiled broadly trying to cover her panic.

"I'm headed out. I won't be back until late." Jupiter called out to whoever could hear as she walked out the front door, snagging a pair of Mikka's shoes and stuffing them into her duffle.

The minute the door closed behind her, she phoned her cousin. "Hi Mikka. Listen, I really need those boots for my date this evening. Where are you? I'll drop by and get them."

When she finished the call, she tapped the communicator in her watch. "I need a team of Keepers to meet me at the Woodfield Mall. Mikka took my gravity surfing boots. Tell them to locate her and await my arrival."

Jupiter hoofed it to the bus stop. If she could get the next express bus, it would be almost as fast as taxi and she could save a few dollars. The bus was pulling up to the stop as she rounded the corner so she broke into a run to make it.

She flashed her bus pass at the driver, took a few steps forward and grabbed one of the rails. The bus started with a small jerk and she swayed, almost bumping the passenger next to her.

Even after all these months, old habits were hard to break. She didn't really need to worry about saving a few dollars anymore. Sometimes the only thing to do was to laugh at the absurdity of her life.

Her bodyguard (she wasn't sure who was on duty this afternoon) hadn't made it in time to get on the bus. But that was his problem not hers. She wondered idly if he'd powered his gravity boots long enough to make it to the bus and was laying flat on top of it. The image made her smile.

The smile drooped into a frown when she thought about the lecture she'd be in for later from either Caine or Stinger, or worse both.

Shifting from foot to foot with impatience, she stared out the window as the bus passed familiar buildings desperately hoping she arrived before something truly awful happened and Mikka ended up in the hospital.

Jupiter jostled the small distance to the front of the bus as it turned onto Perimeter Drive. She hopped off at the first stop and punched the button on her watch. Before she spoke, gravity boots appeared in her field of vision and she looked up into Caine's disapproving face.

"She's in the Macy's parking lot. The Keepers have her under surveillance. This way, your Majesty."

Normally, she loved it when he called her "your Majesty," but the distinct chill in his tone made her wince as she moved silently in the direction he indicated. Oh, she would be in for it later.

They walked at a rapid pace. Just when she was beginning to feel winded, they turned a corner and she saw Mikka moving erratically twenty feet in the air. With a sudden swoop, she lost her balance and started falling.

Jupiter panicked. "Caine! What…" The words died on her tongue. He was already flying across the parking lot, his own boots making a second set of blue streaks.

She ran toward them as Caine snatched Mikka out of air just before she fell head first into the back of a battered blue pickup truck. Pulling the control glove out of her pocket, she deactivated the boots and Caine set Mikka down on the pavement.

Ignoring the gawkers, Jupiter rushed to her cousin and started looking her over. "Are you all right? Did you hurt anything?"

For a moment, Mikka stared up at Caine with hero worship in her eyes and then she collapsed onto Jupiter, sucking in great gouts of air. Several other teens crowded around her, patting her on the back and whispering calming phrases.

A few minutes and tears later, Mikka regained her composure enough to say shakily, "Now I understand why you didn't want me borrow these boots. I was so afraid I was going to slam into the ground and go splat all over the parking lot. I just wanted to show my friends how cool they were, I didn't mean to go flying."

Mikka turned to thank Caine. When she saw him, her mouth opened but nothing came out. Her lower jaw moved a couple of times, but no words emerged.

"I think she's trying to say 'thank you,'" Jupiter commented dryly. "But she appears to be dumbstruck by your good looks."

Caine frowned. So much for flattery getting her back into his good graces, not that it wasn't entirely true.

Jupiter glanced around to see that the crowd of onlookers had grown. She sighed. She really hated doing this, but it was necessary. "The excitement is over. Let the blanking begin."

Small blue flashes of light flickered all around the area and people started wandering off. By this time Mikka had recovered enough to watch in fascination.

When the smear of the keepers came close to her friends, Mikka finally noticed the telltale signs of the invisibility cloak. "What is that? What are the blue lights about?"

"These people are having their memory modified to remove the memory of your flight," Jupiter answered gently. "It's your turn now. All you'll remember is being in the parking lot to exchange shoes with me."

"Jupiter, what's going…" But before Mikka could finish her question, a blue light flashed in her face and Caine ducked quickly behind a car.

Jupiter smiled at her cousin. "Hey Mikka, I brought you some shoes." She pulled the shoes out of her duffle bag and handed them to her cousin. "Can I have my boots back now?"

Mikka bent down and started tugging the left boot off.


End file.
